Mastercard Receives Bitcoin Patent

American Mastercard has received approval for a patent to use Bitcoin through their debit card.But so far, there are no plans to bring the product to the market, due to a number of uncertainties surrounding the digital currency.

In the future, it may be possible to use their payment or credit card to make purchases with Bitcoin.CNBCreported that Mastercard recently won a patent relating to the handling of cryptocurrency. At present, card giant customers can only pay for products and services with a currency that the government has approved as legal.

Documents submitted to the U.S. Patent and Registration Office show that Mastercard sees an “increased use” of currencies based on consumer chains that “value anonymity and security.”

However, there are several disadvantages to using digital currency, according to Mastercard. It is about security only improving for the payer, while the recipient’s uncertainty is likely to increase due to anonymity.

In addition, blockchain transactions take longer to perform, about 10 minutes, compared to nanoseconds for traditional payments.

There is also uncertainty about whether merchants and service companies will generally accept cryptocurrencies, even if bitcoin becomes an approved payment instrument at the card companies.

So far, there are no concrete plans to take the bitcoin cards to the market, according to Mastercard’s press release Seth Eisen.

“We are constantly looking at new innovations in the market to create value for us and our consumers. Patent applications are part of the process where we take steps to protect our intellectual property rights, whether or not the idea comes to market, “says Seith Eisen of CNBC.

On Tuesday, a Bitcoin was traded for around $ 7,300, representing a value increase of about 13 percent over the past month. Nevertheless, the currency is far from it’s $ 19,500 high-end listing reached in December last year.